There are a wide variety of electrical connectors which are adapted to be mated with a printed circuit board. Many of these connectors, referred to as header connectors, are supported adjacent an edge of the printed circuit board so as to be accessible for external electrical connection with a mating connector.
These header connectors typically include an insulative housing which supports a plurality of electrical contacts therein. The contacts include tail portions which extend from the housing and are adapted for electrical engagement with electrical traces on the printed circuit board. The solder tails extending from the housing of the header connector are aligned with solder pads of the traces of the printed circuit board so that the solder tails may be ultimately soldered to the solder pads effecting permanent mechanical and electrical engagement between the header connector and the printed circuit board. The solder tails are typically spring biased so as to exert a spring force against the solder pads of the printed circuit board so that effective electrical engagement is established and maintained upon placement of the header connector on the edge of the printed circuit board.
As these header connectors are mounted to an edge of the printed circuit board, the connectors may be subject to tilting or movement during the manufacturing process prior to solder connection of the tails to the pads. Tilting or movement of the connector with respect to the printed circuit board may cause a dislodgement of one or more of the solder tails from the solder pad. Furthermore, warpage of the printed circuit board is often found. Such warpage may result in intermittent contact between the solder pads. Additionally, as the solder tails are typically spring biased to assure engagement with the solder pads, excessive titling, warping or movement may result in loss of resiliency of the spring biased tails.
One technique to overcome such problems is to rigidly clamp the header connector to the printed circuit board prior to soldering so as to prevent movement of the connector with respect to the board. Clamping of the connector to the board often requires use of fastening hardware such as screws which are mounted through the connector and into holes located in the printed circuit board. Use of such securement hardware may interfere with the soldering process rendering such soldering difficult and costly. Furthermore, rigidly clamping the connector to the printed circuit board also results in other problems. For instance, mechanical fastening in this manner may also result in the spring bias of the solder tails losing their resiliency and thereby losing effective electrical engagement with the solder pads of the traces.
In order to alleviate certain of these problems it has been found that an edge mounted header connector may be formed with one or more gripper arms which extend from the insulative housing and underlie the solder tails at one or more locations along the length of the header connector. The gripper arms and the solder tails form a space therebetween which accommodates the edge of the printed circuit board. To a great extent the location of the gripper arms prevents the adverse effects of connector tilting with respect to the printed circuit. Thus the solder tails are maintained in contact with the solder pads during and after the soldering process. A connector having such gripper arms and exhibiting such advantages is shown and described in commonly assigned U.S. patent application entitled "SINGLE-SIDED STRADDLE MOUNT PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD CONNECTOR", filed Oct. 23, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,799 While the structure shown and described in that application serves adequately for its intended function, the connector itself must be formed to have such gripper arms. This requires forming a specialized connector having the gripper arm feature formed therewith. In certain situations where a header connector is to be employed where the gripper arms do not pre-exist in the connector structure, the features and benefits of such gripper arms cannot be employed. Also as this gripper arm feature is integral with the connector it remains with the connector after soldering. This may not always be a desirable situation.
Further during the soldering process extending portions of the connector could be exposed to contact with solder. This is especially troublesome if the solder comes in contact with the exposed portions of the contacts of the connector designed for connection to a mating connector.
It is therefore desirable to provide an electrical connection assembly which may be mounted to the edge of the printed circuit board and which provides superior resistance to the adverse affects of connector tilting and printed circuit board warpage and which protects expanded contacts from contact with solder during the soldering process.